Quantic Dreams demos amazing prototype

Speaking at GDC, Quantic Dreams’ David Cage relayed the importance of visual actors and meaningful content in games – and accompanying his talk, came a video showing off a prototype tech demo they’ve been working on: Kara.

Kara is a prototype video captured from a PlayStation 3 demonstrating some pretty amazing visual acting and motion capture. It shows the creation of an android, Kara, as she gains sentience and experiences life and emotion.

Think that’s impressive? Apparently the prototype is already a year old – and Quantic Dreams have made progress since then.

“Since then the engine is now in version 3, so what you have in Kara is 50 per cent of the features we currently have in our engine running on PlayStation 3.”

The demo shows off QD’s move towards full performance capture – where audio, facial and body motion are all captured together, as opposed to being done in split performances.

Quantic Dreams’ last game, Heavy Rain, featured intensive narrative and visual performances, so if this the tech behind their next game, it’s going to be impressive, indeed.

Were you moved by Kara? Tell us what you think about the direction of visual performances on the forums, or in the comments below.